© Joe Douglas. 2016
In 2010 I was at a Steam Rally at Ducklington, Oxfordshire with my son and grandsons, and in the grand parade was the engine shown below, one of the three engines the Taylor Brothers owned.
The following notes were taken from the display boards at the Ducklington, Oxon, steam rally.
The Busy Bee, No. 3555 was manufactured by Burrell was delivered, by rail, to its original owners Taylor Bros. Amusements, Workington, Cumberland in March 1914.
During World War 1, (1914-
After the war she joined Burrell No. 3927, “Queen of the Borders” and No. 3744, “King George V” pulling Taylor's Gallopers, Switchback and Alpine Motors fairground rides round Yorkshire and the Borders.
The Busy Bee is the only engine of the three to survive into restoration.
The Busy Bee -
The Taylor Brothers, Matthew (Matty) and William George (Billy) Taylor, were travelling showmen based in West Cumberland. In total they owned three Burrell Engines. One of which was the Busy Bee.One of my earliest fair day memories is of a huge green showman’s engine powering Matty’s ark at the bottom of Station Street Cockermouth. That would be in the late 1940’s just after the end of WW1
The previous owner of The Busy Bee, Dr. John Middlemiss, wrote an article in the 2006 journal of the North Craven Heritage Trust titled Settle Steam which refers to the Busy Bee and George V in Settle in 1928. The article contains a photograph of a Gallopers ride at Settle. This may be the Taylor’s ride my mother remembered at Cockermouth Fair.
To view the article search on the Trust’s website for ‘Busy Bee’.
It’s current owner is Patrick Edwards of Langley Farm, Little Clanfield, Oxon. In the gallery on his website are some excellent photographs of the Busy Bee taken during one of its renovations/services and with its previous owner Dr. John Middlemiss on the side boards.
The Busy Bee
The living wagon being towed behind the engine with its rounded corners is the style I remembered uncle Matty and aunty Lizzie living in in the 1950’s.